ALLIED DESIGN

URBAN PLANNER STUDY

BY,

SHALIN KAPDI, AJAY KUSHWAHA, SHRUTI PATKAR, SHAMIK SHINDE, SRUJANA SHETTY, LALIT KADU, AKHILESH NAMBIAR
CONTENTS

▪ History of Kevin Lynch

▪ Works and Philosophy

o The Image of the Environment

o Three Cities

o The City Image and Its Elements

o City Form

o A New Scale

▪ Appendices and Conclusion

o Some Reference to Orientation

o The Use of the Method

 Kevin Lynch (1918-1984) was the leading environmental design theorist of our time. His career was devoted to
research, writing & teaching, as well as a consultant in city design & planning.

His published work includes 8 books & some 25 articles & essays. He had a distinctively humanistic design
philosophy, which evolved over a period of more than thirty years.

1935-1937 : Studies at Yale University

1937-1939 : Worked under Frank Lloyd Wright

1939-1940 : Worked at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

1947. : Received B.C.P. degree from MIT

1948. : Appointed instructor in city planning at MIT

1963 : Professor at MIT

Kevin Lynch began his early research on city form & design as a
young instructor at MIT. He was fascinated & intrigued by the physical
city & the urban experience generally, & by the interaction between
physical space & its human use. He quickly became engrossed in
describing & understanding the form of the modern metropolis.

Book written by him:

The Form of Cities (1954), The Pattern of the Metropolis (1961), A
Theory of Urban Form (1958), & The City As Environment (1965).

HISTORY
 He was curious to know how the public, not the trained designer,
saw & understood the everyday environment, what they valued
in it, how it shaped their lives & activities, & how they in turn shaped
the urban form.

He emphasized that city design is not just about the physical

arrangement or rearrangement of things to satisfy today's needs,
but that it also has to do with fundamental human values & rights,
justice, freedom, control, learning, access, dignity & creativity.

Lynch’s works influenced humanistic design planning & environ-

mental psychology. Very few people thought about the psycho-
logical importance of our senses in understanding city design
before Lynch, & this contributed to the success & recognition
of his work.

WORK PHILOSOPHY
 ➢ An environmental image has three components:
• Iidentity (the recognition of urban elements as separate
entities),
• Structure (the relation of urban elements to other
objects and to the observer)
• meaning (its practical and emotional value to the
observer).

➢ It is important that these are not hermetically designed

into precise and final detail but present an open-ended
order. Urban inhabitants should be able to actively form
their own stories and create new activities.

➢ They should design the city in such a way that it gives

room for three related ‘movements’: mapping, learning,
shaping.
People Should learn to
• acquire a clear mental map of their urban environment.
• learn how to navigate in this environment by training.
• operate and act upon their environment.

➢ A clear mental map of the urban environment is needed

to counter the always looming fear of disorientation. A
legible mental map gives people an important sense of
emotional security, it is the framework for
communication and conceptual organization, and
heightens the depth and intensity of everyday human
experience.

THE IMAGE OF THE ENVIRONMENT

 Lynch carried out an analysis of THREE AMERICAN
CITIES:

Boston, Massachusetts
Jersey city, New Jersey
Los Angeles, California

There were two basic types of analysis:

• A Systematic Field Reconnaissance • Interviews and Questionnaire

It started by finding out the existing potential by the site In order to evaluate the components
and its surroundings. of perception at the group level.
He chose small samples of
It was made on foot by a trained observer who mapped interviewees for his study:
the area and explored the visibility of it; defining its
elements and recording any existing activities and forms Thirty persons of Boston and fifteen
which could be used to make the place more legible, each in Jersey and Los Angeles.
dividing them into major and minor categories according
significance and strong visibility. Interviewees were from professionals
and managerial classes.
The map resulted from this analysis was an abstraction of
true physical map, since the mapping process itself was
subjective and done independently from the interview
analysis.

Lynch's checklists of elements were helpful here for

stimulating the analysis: Paths, Edges ,Landmarks, Nodes ,
Districts
ANALYSIS OF THREE CITIES MAPPING
 Analyses of interviews revealed a
considerable overlap between different
people's images of a given environment,
enabling a shared image to be mapped.

Maps were analyzed according to

frequency of elements; after that, the results
were compared.

Legible layout was that people are able to

form clear and accurate images of it.

MENTAL MAPS BUILT AFTER INTERVIWING

 Lynch defined three formal components for the sense of perceiving an
environment:

Identity, structure and the meaning, but he confined his study to Identity and
structure excluding the meaning, although meaning plays an important role in
improving the imageability of the city.

In other words, cognitive mapping techniques tend to neglect issues of people's

feeling toward their environment and what actually it means to them.

INFERENCE
 THE CITY IMAGE DESCRIBED BY KEVIN LYNCH
There seems to be a public image of any given city which is the overlap of many individual images . Or perhaps
there is a series of public images, each held by some significant number of citizens . Such group images are
necessary if an individual is to operate successfully within his environment

The contents of the city images, which are refer-able to physical forms, can conveniently be classified into five
types of elements :

1. paths

2. edges

3. districts

4. Nodes

5. landmarks.

THE CITY IMAGE AND ITS ELEMENTS

 PATHS

• Paths are the channels along which the • Once a path has directional quality it may have
observer customarily, occasionally or the further attribute of being scaled.
potentially moves. • Features which facilitate scaling, of course,
• People observe the city while moving through usually confer a sense of direction as well.
it, and along these paths the other • The second common cause of misalignment
environmental elements are arranged and to the rest of the city was the sharp separation
related. of a path from surrounding elements
• Concentration of special use or activity along a • The rail road lines end the subway are other
street may hive it prominence in the minds of examples of detachment.
observers. • When we consider more than one path then
• People seem to be sensitive to variations in the the path intersection becomes vital, since it is
amount of activity they encounter, and some the point of decision. The simple
times guided themselves largely by following perpendicular relationship seem easiest to
the main stream of traffic handle, especially if the shape of the
• Special façade characteristic were also intersection was reinforced by other features.
important for path identity.
• Proximity to special features of the city could
also endow a path with increased importance.
• The paths have continuity as well, is an obvious
functional necessity. People regularly
dependent upon this quality.
• People often generalized that other kinds of
characteristics along a continuous track were
also continuous, despite actual changes.
• Paths may not only be identifiable and
continuous, but have directional quality as
well.
PATHS
 EDGES
• Edges are the linear elements not considered
as paths : they are usually, but not quiet
always, the boundaries between two kinds of
areas.
• The water edge on the other side, harbor
front, was also generally known, and
remembered for its special activity.
• Many edges seams uniting, rather than
isolating barriers, and it is interesting to see
the difference in effect.
• Edges are often paths as well
• The element was usually pictured as a path,
reinforced by boundary characteristics.
EDGES AND DISTRICTS
DISTRICTS
• Districts are the relatively large city areas which
the observer can mentally go inside of, and
which have some common character, they can
be organized internally, and occasionally can
be used as external reference as a person
goes by or towards them.
• The physical characteristics that determine
districts are thematic continuities which may
consist of an endless variety of components :
texture, space, form, detail, symbol, building
type, use, activity, inhabitants, degree of
maintenance, topography.
• District names also help to give identity to
districts even when thematic unit does not
establish a striking contrast with other parts of
the city, and traditional associations can play a
similar role.
 NODES
• Nodes are the strategic foci
into which the observer can
enter, typically either
junctions of paths, or
concentrations of some
characteristics.
• The subway stations, strung
along their invisible path
systems, are strategic
junction nodes.
• Major rail road stations are
almost always important city
nodes.
• Nodes maybe both junctions
and concentrations.
• A strong physical form is not
absolutely essential to the
recognition of a node : but
where the space has some
form, the impact is much
stronger. The node becomes
memorable.
• Nodes like districts, maybe
introvert or extrovert.
• The principal direction in its
surrounding is towards or
away from it.
NODES AND LANDMARKS
LANDMARKS
• Landmarks, the point references
considered to be external to the
observer are simple physical
elements which may vary widely in
scale.
• Since the use of landmarks involves
the sign line out of one element from
a host of possibilities, the key physical
characteristic of this class is
singularity.
• Landmarks become more easily
identifiable, more likely to be chosen
as significant, if they have a clear
form, if they contrast with their
background, and if there is some
prominence of some spatial location.
• Distant landmarks, prominent points
visible from many positions, were
often well known.
• Landmarks maybe isolated, single
events without reinforcement. Except
for large or very singular marks, These
are week references, since they are
easy to miss and require sustained
searching. The single traffic light or
street name demands concentration
to find.
 ELEMENT INTERRELATIONS

• These elements are simply the raw material of

the environmental image at the city scale. They
must be patterned together to provide a
satisfying form.
• The next logical step is to consider the
interaction of pairs of unlike elements.
• Such pairs may reinforce one another,
resonate so that they enhance each other’s
power; or they may conflict and destroy
themselves.
• A great landmark may dwarf and throw out of
scale a small region at its base
• Districts in particular, which tend to be of
larger size than the other elements contai9n
within themselves, and are thus related to,
various paths, nodes, and landmarks.
• Paths, which are dominant in many individual
images, and which may be a principal resource
in organization at the metropolitan scale, have
intimate interrelations with other element
types.
• All these elements operate together, in a
context.

ELEMENT INTERRELATIONS
 THE SHIFTING IMAGE
• Rather than a single comprehensive image for
the sets of images, were typically arranged in a
series of levels, so that the observer moved as
necessary from an image at street level to
levels of a neighborhood.
• This arrangement by levels is a necessity in a
large and complex environment.
• The sequence in which sketch maps were
drawn seemed to indicate that the image
develops or grows in different ways.
• Several types were apparent:
a. Quiet frequently, images were developed
along, and then outward from, familiar lines of
movement.
b. Other maps were begun by the construction
of an enclosing outline.
c. Still others, by laying down a basic repaiting
pattern and then adding details.
d. Somewhat fewer maps started as a set of
adjacent regions, which were then detailed as
to connections and interiors.
e. A few developed a dense familiar element on
which everything was ultimately hung.
THE SHIFTING IMAGE
• Images could be further distinguished
according to their structural quality :
a. The various elements were free: there was no
structure or interrelation between parts.
b. In others, the structure became positional, the
parts were roughly related in terms of their
general direction and perhaps even relative
distance from each other, while still remaining
disconnected.
c. Most often, perhaps, the structure was
flexible, parts were connected one to other,
but in a loose and flexible manner.
d. As connections multiplied, the structure
tended to become rigid, parts were firmly
interconnected.
CITY ACCORDING TO KEVIN LYNCH
A city is a multi-purpose, shifting organization, a tent for many functions, raised by many hands and with
relative speed.
Complete specialization, final meshing, is improbable and undesirable.
The form must be somewhat noncommittal, plastic to the purposes and perceptions of its citizens.

"We have the opportunity of forming out new city world into an imageable landscape: visible, coherent, and
clear."
fundamental functions of which the city forms may be expressive: circulation, major land-uses, key focal
points.

METROPOLITAN FORM
The increasing size of our metropolitan areas and the speed with which we traverse them raise many new problems
for perception.
The metropolitan region is now the functional unit of our environment, and it is desirable that this functional unit
should be identified, imageable and structured by its inhabitants.

To composing a pattern for such an large area, Kevin lynch suggested three techniques ,i.e.
The hierarchy,
The dominant element, or
The network of sequences.

CITY FORM
• First, the entire region may be composed as a static hierarchy.

For example,
any given part of the region might focus on a minor node, these minor nodes being
satellite to a major nude, while all the major nodes are arranged to culminate in a single
primary node for the region.

• The second technique is the use of one or two very large dominant elements,
to which many smaller things may be related: the siting of settlement along a sea-coast,

For example,
the design of a linear town depending on a basic communication spine. A large
environment might even be radially related to a very powerful landmark, such as a
central hill.

• The third technique is sequence, or temporal pattern.

This is a familiar idea in music, drama, literature, or dance. Therefore it is relatively easy to
conceive of, and study, the form of a sequence of events along a line.

For example,
the succession of elements that might greet a traveler on an urban highway. With some
attention, and proper tools, this experience could be made meaningful and well-shaped.

CITY FORM
 CONTINUITY AND REVERSIBILITY IN SEQUENCES
• In cities sequences are not only reversible, but are broken in upon at
many points.

• A carefully constructed sequence, leading from introduction, first

statement, and development to climax and conclusion, may fail utterly if
a driver enters it directly at the climax point.

• Therefore it may be necessary to look for sequences which are

interruptible as well as reversible, that is, sequences which still have
sufficient imageability even when broken in upon at various points,
much like a magazine serial.

• This might lead us from the classic start climax-finish form to others
which are more like the essentially endless, and yet continuous and
variegated, patterns of jazz.

OBJECTIVE OF IMAGABLE PLANNING

The final objective of such a plan is nor the physical shape itself but the quality of an image in the mind . Thus it
will be equally useful to improve this image by training the observer, by teaching him to look at his city ,to
observe its manifold forms and how they mesh with one another .

CITY FORM
A NEW SCALE

- He explains that the “Identity” & “Structure” of single elements, & their
patterning in small complexes, creates a synthesis of city form.
[ systems within a system ]

- He believed that if a clear & comprehensive image of the urban region can
be developed, it will raise the experience of a city to a new level, a level
equal to the contemporary functional unit.

- He says that, the city must be flexible to the perceptual habits of its citizens,
open-ended to change of function & meaning, receptive to the formation
of new imagery.

- A highly developed art of urban design is linked to the creation

of a critical and attentive audience. If art and audience grow
together, then our cities will be a source of daily enjoyment
to millions of their inhabitants.

LIFE AND WORKS

 SOME REFERENCES TO ORIENTATION
• To become completely lost is perhaps a rather rare experience for most people in the modern city.
• We are supported by the presence of others and by special way-finding devices: maps,streets numbers,route
signs,bus placards.
• But let the mishap of disorientation once occur,and the sense of anxiety and even terror that accompanies it reveals
to us how closely it is linked to our sense of balance and well being.
• The very word lost in our language means much more than simple geographical uncertainity.

Principles for effective wayfinding include:

• Create an identity at each location,different from all others.

• Use landmarks to provide orientation cues and memorable locations.
• Create well-structured paths.
• Create regions of differing visual character.
• Don’t give the user too many choices in navigation.
• Use survey views( give navigators a vista or map).
• Provide signs at decision points to help wayfinding decisions.
• Use sight lines to show whats’s ahead.

ORIENTATION
 Visual sense
The apparent clarity or “Legibility” of the cityscape.
It means the ease with which its parts can be recognized and can be organized into a coherent pattern,can be
visually grasped as a related pattern of recognizable symbols,so a legible city would be one whose districts or
landmarks or pathways are easily identifiable and are easily grouped into an over-all pattern.

Formation of the Image

The creation of the environmental image is a two-way process between observer and observed. What he sees is
based on exterior form, but how he interprets and organizes this, and how he directs his attention, in its turn affects
what he sees. The human organism is highly adaptable and flexible, and different groups may have widely different
images of the same outer reality.

Sapir gives an interesting example of this differential focus of attention, in the language of the southern Paiute. They
have single terms in their vocabulary for such precise topographical features as a "spot of level ground in mountains
surrounded by ridges" or "canyon wall receiving sunlight"or "rolling country intersected by several small hill -ridges."

ORIENTATION
 DISADVANTAGES OF IMAGEABILITY

• Lynch’s theory of imageability is discussing the quality of cities

according
to the legibility factor of the elements that are perceived by the
observers.
• The term ‘visible’, which he calls as ‘legible’, is a visual quality that
can be understood through studying mental images as a result of
people’s memories and meanings.
• The urban elements are read or analyzed into three categories:
identity, structure,and meaning.
• Physical qualities which relate to the attributes of identity and
structure in the mental image.
• This leads to the definition of what might be called
imageability:that quality in a physical object which gives it a high
probability of evoking a strong image in any given observer.
• It is that shape,colour,or arrangement which facilitates the making
of vividly identified ,powerfully structured,highly useful mental
images of the environment.
• If it is desirable that an environment evoke rich, vivid images,it is
also desirable that these images be communicable and adaptable
to changing practical needs, and that there can develop new
groupings, new meanings, new poetry. The objective might be an
imageable environment which is at the same time open-ended.
• As a peculiar example of how this dilemma can be resolved,even
in an irrational way, we may take the Chinese pseudo science of
geomantics.

IMAGEABILITY
 Two principal methods :
The interview of a small sample of citizens with regard to their image of the
environment, and a systematic examination of the environmental image evoked
in trained observers in the field . The value of these techniques is an important
question , particularly since one of the objectives of our study was the
development of adequate methods .
Two different questions are contained within this general one :
(a ) how reliable are the methods , how truthful are they
when they indicate a certain conclusion ? And
(b ) how useful are they ? Are the conclusions valuable
in making planning decisions , and is the effort expended worth the result ?

The office interview consisted of questions related to :

1. Description of what symbolizes the city’s name ?
2. Quick map of city and its main features
3. Mind mapping ( your daily route from work to home )
4. Emotional feeling with particular area or place.
5. Elements of city which are most distinctive as per you.
6. Describe (place name) to me
7. Any emotional feeling regarding (place name)
8. To locate (place name) on your map
9. Informal questions like what do you think we are trying to find
10. What is importance is orientation and recognition of city elements to people
11. Any pleasure or displeasure knowing that where you come from ?
12. Do you feel you find it easy to way in, in your city
13. Which cities do you think have good orientation and why as per you ?

THE USE OF THE METHOD

 • The interview lasts about 1 1/2 hrs. The entire interview
was recorded on tape and then transcribed.
• 16 interviewees were sufficient for the second session.
• Here they were confronted with a stack of photographs
clicked from the parts of city, the interviewees were said to
identify the photos and to tell what points they saw to
identify the place. Also they were said to place the
photographs on a larger map to locate it.
• Then they were taken into practical walk in the city where
they were asked to tell why did they choose the particular
route and also to indicate where he/she felt either
confident or lost.
• In this walk many random people on street were asked
about the places to know what different people had
approach to go to same place.
• This whole walk was recorder with a portable record for
further reference.

• The mapping of all this information of a small sample took

5-6 man-days to combine it into a common map.
• If you look closely the three cities which were studied had
many co-relation problems like sometimes the sketch map
and distinctive elements has different co-relations. The
most weightage of co-relation was found between sketch
map done by interviewees and composite verbal
interviews.
Example of elements in mind mapping

THE USE OF THE METHOD

 The issue with this type of method was :
• The size of the sample was small; 30 interviewees from each city was a small scale study to design a whole city.
• The second criticism is the unbalanced nature of the samples chosen.
• They were well balanced as to age and sex. All were familiar to environments and specialists such as city
planners, volunteers, architects were excluded.
• The retest with some changes was however a good option with a bigger scale sample.
• Better methods must be evolved to approach these vital aspects.

The procedure might begin with two studies.

• The first would be a generalized field reconnaissance by two or three trained observers, systematically
covering the city both on foot and by vehicle, by night and day, and supplementing this coverage by several
"problem" trips, as described above. This would culminate in a field analysis map and brief report, which
would deal with strengths and weaknesses, and with general pattern as well as parts.
• A parallel step would be the mass interview of a large sample, balanced to match the general population
characteristics.
• This group, which could be interviewed simultaneously or in several parts, would be asked to do four things:

a. Draw a quick sketch map of the area in question, showing the most interesting and important features, and
giving a stranger enough knowledge to move about without coo touch difficulty.
b. Make a similar sketch of the route and events along one or two imaginary trips, trips chosen to expose the
length and breadth of the area.
c. Make a written list of the parts of the city felt to be most distinctive, the examiner explaining the meaning of
"parts" and "distinctive.“
d. Pur down brief written answers to a few questions of the type: "Where is located?"

THE METHOD AS THE BASIS FOR DESIGN

The held reconnaissance and the mass interview would then be compared for the relation of public image to visual
form, to make a first-round analysis of the visual strengths and weakness of the whole area, and to identify- the
critical points, sequences, or patterns which are worth further attention.

• Second-round investigation of these critical problems would then begin. Using a small sample, subjects would
be asked in individual interviews to locate selected critical elements, to operate with them in brief imaginary trips,
to describe them, to make sketches of them, to discuss their feelings and memories about them.
• When this study is analyzed detailed study can be started about the elements, materials can be synthesized in a
series of maps and reports which would give the basic public image of the area, and can be discussed for
possible changes.
• On such an analysis, continuously modified and kept up to date, a plan for the future visual form of the region
could be based.

THE METHOD AS THE BASIS FOR DESIGN

 • The preceding critique, and many of the pages in earlier chapters, point to unsolved problems.
• Our knowledge of the subject would also be enriched if comparative studies were applied to a greater range
of environments than the three cities actually studied. Very new and very old cities, compact and sprawling
ones, dense and sparse, chaotic and highly ordered environments, might all produce characteristic
differences in their image.

• How does the public image of a village differ from that of Manhattan?
• Is a lake city easier to conceptualize than a railroad town?

• Such studies would produce a storehouse of material on the effects of physical form, on which the designer of
cities could draw.

• The key differences may equally likely be in the observer himself. As planning becomes a world-wide
discipline, and planners arc-drawn into the business of making plans for people of other countries, it becomes
necessary to make sure that what has been found in America is not simply a derivation of local culture. How
does an Indian look at his city, or an Italian?

• These differences make difficulties for the analyst, not only in international practice but within his own country
as well.
• He can be prisoner of a regional way of thought or, particularly in America, of that of his own class. If cities arc
to be used by many groups of people, then it is important to understand how the different major groups tend
to image their surroundings. The same might be said of significant variations in personality type. The present
study dealt only in the common factors within the sample.
• All these questions have more than theoretical interest. Cities are the habitat of many groups, and only with a
differentiated understanding of group and individual images and their interrelations can an environment be
constructed that will be satisfying to all.
• Until such knowledge is at hand, the designer must continue to rely upon the common denominator, or public
image, and otherwise provide as great a variety of types of image-building material as he can devise.

DIRECTION FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

• The present studies have been confined to images as they exist at one point of time. We would understand
them far better if we knew how they develop;
• how does a stranger build an image of a new city;
• how does a child develop his image of the world?
• How can such images be taught or communicated;
• what forms are most suitable for image development?
• A city must have both an obvious structure that can be grasped immediately and also a potential structure
which will allow one gradually to construct a more complex and comprehensive picture.
• The constant rebuilding of the city causes an allied problem: the adjustment of the image to external change.
As our habitat becomes ever more fluid and shifting, it becomes critical to know how to maintain image
continuity through these upheavals.
• How does an image adjust to change, and what are the limits within which this is possible?
• When is reality ignored or distorted to preserve the map?
• When does the image break down, and at what cost?
• How can this breakdown be avoided by physical continuities, or how can the formation of new images be
facilitated, once breakdown has occurred?
• The construction of environmental images which are open-ended to change is a special problem: images
which are tough and yet elastic in the face of the inevitable stresses.

what
when how

why

who

DIRECTION FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

• This refers us again to the fact that the image is not solely the
result of external characteristics but is a product of the
observer as well. Therefore it would be possible to improve
image quality by education.
• A useful study could be conducted on the devices by which
one can teach people to be well oriented to their city
environment: through museums, lectures, city walks, school
projects, and so on. Allied with this is the potential use of
symbolic devices: maps, signs, diagrams, direction-giving
machines. A seemingly disordered physical world may be
clarified by the invention of a symbolic diagram which explains
the relations of main features in a way which is sympathetic to
image development.
• A good example of this is the diagrammatic map of the
London subway system, which is prominently displayed in
every station.

DIRECTION FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

 At the moment the most significant topics for future study appear to be these:
• the application of the concept to metropolitan regions;
• its extension to a consideration of major group differences;
• image development and adjustment to change;
• the city image as a. total, temporally extended pattern;
• and the design potential of the concept of imageability.

DIRECTION FOR FUTURE RESEARCH